Beyond Beach Jam
by suburbs
Summary: Caitlyn was never a fan of Connect 3 or Nate. Beach Jam changed that.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Camp Rock.

Caitlyn had never been a Connect 3 fan; she thought that they were a stereotypical boy band who cared more about their hair and wardrobe than the music. And to Caitlyn, it was all about the music. If she stopped to give them any thought at all, she probably would have decided that they were cute. But Caitlyn found traits like talent, drive and dedication to be attractive, and Connect 3 had never struck her as being big on any of those. Give her someone like Andy or Barron any day.

As she sat in the front row at Beach Jam next to Mitchie and watched the members of Connect 3 run on stage, she had very low expectations. It would probably be another reworking of their same old, worn-out sound. But the moment the guys began to play, her head shot up. This was totally new…and surprisingly, she liked it. A lot. As she focused on the three musicians, she began to see past the popstar image. Nate and Jason were awesome on their guitars, and Shane's voice was much better than she had ever given him credit for. Whoever had been producing their songs should be shot.

And then, Nate started singing, and Caitlyn raised an eyebrow. She wasn't sure how someone could go from sort-of-cute to gorgeous in the space of a second, but suddenly Caitlyn couldn't take her eyes off the curly-haired boy. He was amazing. It was a good thing that Mitchie was too absorbed in watching Shane to notice the almost carnal looks Caitlyn was sending Nate's way, or Caitlyn would have never heard the end it. All too soon the song ended, and Caitlyn jumped up with everyone else, clapping and cheering.

Part of her really wanted to go find Nate and talk to him, but that was something some crazy fan-girl would do. Caitlyn really hated girls like that. And honestly, what was the point? It wasn't like her opinion would matter to him anyway. Caitlyn was way too practical to indulge in some silly school-girl fantasy.

Even during all the drama leading up to Final Jam, Caitlyn found her thoughts drifting back to Nate. She secretly borrowed Mitchie's copy of Connect 3's last album and burned it onto her computer just to hear his voice. Although she was thoroughly disgusted with herself, she still found herself listening every night before she fell asleep. The old sound was totally cheesy and overproduced, but it brought back the memory of the Beach Jam performance.

During Final Jam she glanced out into the audience to see if she could see him, but the judges had already headed to the back of the auditorium for their conference by the time she and Mitchie took the stage. Later, She was acutely aware of his presence on stage during "We Rock". It would have been so easy to just watch Nate play, but she concentrated on the words to the song and the dance moves so she would not make a fool of herself in front of him. Not that she thought that he would notice what she did. There were tons of people on stage.

After the performance, Caitlyn hung out backstage. Mitchie had disappeared somewhere with Shane, and Barron and Sander had decided to hold an impromptu party at their cabin to celebrate Peggy's win. Caitlyn was planning to head over eventually, but she was vaguely aware that something magical had happened that night and wasn't ready to let go of that feeling. She was almost afraid that if she left the theater, she and Mitchie would still be outcasts, Peggy and Ella would still be Tess' puppets and Tess would still think she ruled the camp. So she sat on the edge of the stage and enjoyed the moment.

"Nice work tonight," a voice said behind her.

Caitlyn turned to see Nate standing in the middle of the stage. She looked around to see if there was someone else he could be talking to, but they were the only ones there. "Thanks," she stammered. "It was really Mitchie."

"Hey, don't get me wrong," Nate said, "I think that Mitchie was great. But you didn't miss a beat when Shane joined in. It was so smooth that most of the audience didn't know that it was unrehearsed. I'm not sure a professional could have pulled that off as well as you did. It was really impressive."

"Thanks. That really means a lot to me. I love producing." Caitlyn looked up at him and grinned. "I'm Caitlyn, by the way."

"Nate," he said as he sat down on the edge of the stage next to her. "Nice to meet you."

The two sat quietly for a moment before Nate ran his hands through his hair nervously. "Do you want to go for a walk or something?" he asked. "I would love to talk to you about music. Maybe get your take on the band's new sound." His voice trailed off and he waited for Caitlyn to answer.

Caitlyn grinned. "Sounds good. Let's go." A gorgeous, talented musician who wanted her opinion on his music – she was pretty sure that it couldn't get any better than this.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Camp Rock.

Nate and Caitlyn walked around the camp with the stars twinkling overhead, but they were completely oblivious to the beauty around them.

"You were at Beach Jam, right?" Nate asked Caitlyn. She nodded her head.

"What did you think?" Nate remembered her from the front row and knew that she had enjoyed the song, so he was totally unprepared for her answer.

"I loved it. It's not every day that you hear a performance live that sounds better than a group's recordings." Caitlyn didn't mean to sound rude, but she was still amazed that the band was so much better than she had expected.

"What?" Nate stopped and looked at Caitlyn in shock.

"Well, I mean, your last album was so over-produced that I thought you guys couldn't really sing. But you're great. It was a nice surprise," Caitlyn knew that this was not the answer Nate had expected. He was really cute, but she was not going to sugar-coat her opinion. If he couldn't handle the truth, he was not worth her time.

"Uh…" Nate was at a loss for words. "Wow. You don't pull any punches, do you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you wanted my honest opinion. My mistake. Let me try again." Her voice got high and bubbly as she spoke next, "Oh my gosh! Nate, you are sooo amazing. I have all your albums."

Then she shook her head and turned to walk away. She was flooded with a strong sense of disappointment. What had she been thinking? The guy was some popstar who had people constantly feeding his ego. She should have known that he couldn't handle anything other than a total mindless fan girl.

Nate stared at her retreating form for a moment before calling after her. "Caitlyn, wait."

Caitlyn stopped and turned to look at him. She placed her hand on one hip and gave him a challenging look as he closed the gap between them. He could see that her eyes had narrowed and her body had tensed as if she was expecting him to attack. Instead, he smiled at her. It was her turn to look surprised.

"I do want to hear your honest opinion. You just caught me off guard. I'm not used to girls being themselves around me."

Caitlyn looked thoughtful for a moment. "That must be rough," she said finally.

Nate nodded his head. "It is. You never know where you stand with anyone." Then he grinned at Caitlyn. "Apparently that won't be a problem with you."

She laughed. "No. People usually know what I think about them. Is that a problem?"

"Actually, I'm good with that," Nate said. "How about we rewind this conversation and go back to where you announced that Connect 3 sounds better in person because our last album was way overproduced?"

Caitlyn smiled. "Are you sure you want to go there?"

"Absolutely. And, for the record, I agree with you. We just need to convince the label that this new sound will sell."

"Do you think that the one song is enough to go in with?" Caitlyn asked.

"I don't know. I've been worried about that," Nate said seriously.

"I think that you guys should get together and work on a few more songs. You need to think through the new sound and prove to them that it is not a one-time thing."

Nate smiled at Caitlyn. It had been awhile since anyone had talked to him about the business aspect of the band. Shane had been too caught up in being angry, and Jason always left everything up to Nate. He couldn't believe that this girl wanted to help him come up with a strategy for approaching the label. He also couldn't believe that he was having trouble focusing on what she was saying because he really wanted to hold her hand.

"Earth to Nate," Caitlyn called. "Are you listening?"

Nate blushed when he realized he had not heard her last few sentences. Caitlyn raised her eyebrow at him. "I thought you wanted to talk about the band," she said.

"I do!" he said. Then he took a deep breath. "But I think I could concentrate better if…" His confidence died.

"If what?" Caitlyn asked.

"If I was holding your hand," he mumbled, looking at the ground.

Caitlyn smirked and reached out for his hand. "Better?" she asked.

Nate felt electricity shoot up his arm at her touch. It was definitely better, but he wasn't sure if was going to help him concentrate. He took a deep breath to help him focus before looking up at Caitlyn. "Much better. "

Caitlyn tried very hard to remain calm and think about the music instead of how nice it felt to hold his hand. "Play My Music is great, but you guys were known for your romantic songs. What about writing a love song that fits the new sound? Then the label won't have to worry about you disappointing all your lovesick fans."

"A love song is a great idea!" Nate exclaimed.

Caitlyn smirked at Nate. "I bet you could get Shane to write you an awesome love song when he gets back from his canoe ride with Mitchie."

He looked down at their hands and looked back up at Caitlyn. "I'm actually feeling pretty inspired myself right now."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Camp Rock or "Got Me Going Crazy"

"Caitlyn, wake up," Mitchie sang cheerily as she shook her friend.

Caitlyn groaned and rolled over, pulling her pillow over her head. "Go away," she moaned. "It is way too early to be that chipper."

"Nate and Shane want us to come hear a new song. Apparently they were up all night working on it. So get out of bed, or I'm bringing them in here to play it for us," Mitchie threatened.

"Okay, okay. I'm up," Caitlyn said and stumbled towards the bathroom.

Mitchie sat on Caitlyn's bed, tapping her foot impatiently while she waited for her friend to get ready. "So…is there anything you want to tell me?" she asked Caitlyn. Caitlyn froze in the middle of running a brush through her hair. "Any special reason why a certain curly-haired popstar refused to play the new song unless _you_ were there?"

Caitlyn got a goofy grin on her face. "He wouldn't play it without me?"

Mitchie shook her head, while Caitlyn blushed.

"We ran into each other last night after Final Jam and walked around talking. About music," Caitlyn replied.

"That's it? You just walked around talking about music?" Mitchie asked incredulously.

"Well, there might have been some hand holding involved," Caitlyn muttered.

Mitchie squealed and bounded up off the bed to give her friend a huge hug. Caitlyn laughed and disentangled herself from Mitchie. "Well, we better not leave them waiting any longer. Let's go hear this new song."

When Mitchie and Caitlyn arrived at the practice cabin, Brown and the boys were already there waiting. All three members of Connect 3 looked like they had gotten little to no sleep, but they seemed excited about playing the new song.

Shane smiled at Mitchie and kissed her on the cheek. "You guys ready for this?"

"Definitely, popstar. Let's hear it," Mitchie replied.

Shane grinned at her before saying, "That's rockstar."

Everyone in the room groaned and rolled their eyes at his comment. Nate, impatient to start, spoke up from behind the drum set. "Okay, here's our newest song. It's called, 'Got Me Going Crazy'."

Nate started on the drums, followed quickly by Jason on the guitar. Then Shane's voice joined in, "Hey there pretty lady, tell me how you do it…"

Mitchie, Caitlyn and Brown all clapped when the song ended.

"Shane, my talented nephew, you have done it again. That song is pure gold," Brown said.

"Thanks, but this one isn't mine. Nate wrote it," Shane said. "Apparently he had a very… inspiring night last night."

Brown looked in confusion from a smirking Shane to an angry-looking Nate. "Well, whatever it was, Nate, keep it up. It's a great song." Brown shook his head and left, while Shane doubled over in laughter.

Caitlyn walked up to Nate, while Mitchie dragged a still giggling Shane out of the room. "That was awesome. You did a great job combining a love song with the new sound, just like we talked about."

Nate smiled at her hopefully. He had been nervous about playing it for her. "So you really liked it?"

Caitlyn nodded, "I loved it. And I'm really glad that our discussion about the label helped."

Nate looked at her in confusion. "What?"

Caitlyn looked embarrassed. "Well, when Shane said you had an inspiring night, I thought that our talk about the new sound…"

Nate stood still for a moment. He had a choice to make. He could either let her think that their talk about the best direction for the next song was his inspiration, or he could tell her the truth that he wrote the song about her. He was just about to chicken out and thank her for her help, when Jason came over.

"Hey, Caitlyn. I'm Jason," the older boy said shaking her hand. "How did you like your special song?"

"My song?" Caitlyn asked. Nate's eyes went wide, and he looked at the ground so he wouldn't have to see Caitlyn's reaction to Jason's question.

"Yeah! Wait, you are the only Caitlyn here at camp, right? Cause last night Nate came back from Final Jam and wrote the song about some amazing girl he met named Caitlyn, so I thought it was about you," Jason stopped babbling for a moment and looked thoughtful. "How come I didn't find a girl? If I don't get a girl, I at least want a birdhouse!"

Jason turned and left the room, calling "Shane, can we go build my birdhouse now?"

"Nate?" Caitlyn asked. He finally looked up at her and saw that she was smiling at him. "Was that really about me?"

His mouth was too dry to speak, so he just nodded at her. Caitlyn's entire face lit up when he nodded. Seeing her that happy gave him the courage to do what he had wanted to do the night before; he leaned over and gently kissed her.


End file.
